VivirLatino

Microsoft Corporation isn’t making any friends in Chile after it rolled out a Windows software package in Mapudungun, the langauge of the Indigenous Mapuches who are mostly based in the south of the South American nation.

At the launch in the southern town of Los Sauces, Microsoft (Charts) said it wanted to help Mapuches embrace the digital age and “open a window so that the rest of the world can access the cultural riches of this indigenous people.”

But Mapuche tribal leaders have accused the U.S. company of violating their cultural and collective heritage by translating the software into Mapudungun without their permission.

They even sent a letter to Microsoft founder Bill Gates accusing his company of “intellectual piracy.”

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